mSATA cache or OS?

[Adin]

Hi, I am eagerly awaiting my W530 (3920-XM, 32GB RAM, K2000M, 2x 1TB HDDs) and I was wondering whether it would make more sense to use the 64GB mSATA SSD I ordered as a.) OS and some applications drive b.) purely as a cache or c.) partitioned for OS and cache.  Has anyone seen notable difference with a cache?

[harrisb]

A 64GB mSata card is a bit too tight for a Windows 7 OS install. Even the 80GB Intell SSD was not sufficient for long. I was using 57GB at initial install and the system kept growing do to Windows Updates, etc to 68GB or more. I'm now running a Crucial M4 256GB mSata SSD in one of the system and the used space is now 85GB.

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

64 gigs mSATA maybe enough if you are just installing the OS on it (no recovery partition, or large program sets).

I got a Samsung 64 gigs mSATA in my T420 with only Win 7 Pro on it, and after all the updates, it is taking up 32 gigs of hdd space. So if you can live with that then, yes use the mSATA for OS.

But if you want a lot of programs installed on the hdd, then consider the ExpressCache as a better alternative. Otherwise, get a SSD and put it in the main hdd slot.

[harrisb]

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lead_org wrote:
64 gigs mSATA maybe enough if you are just installing the OS on it (no recovery partition, or large program sets).

I got a Samsung 64 gigs mSATA in my T420 with only Win 7 Pro on it, and after all the updates, it is taking up 32 gigs of ram. So if you can live with that then, yes use the mSATA for OS.

But if you want a lot of programs installed on the hdd, then consider the ExpressCache as a better alternative. Otherwise, get a SSD and put it in the main hdd slot.

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Or, just get a bigger mSata SSD. Crucial makes 128GB and 256GB SSDs which are fully compatible with the W520/W530.

[rickshaw]

@harrisb
Did you clone your boot drive to the Crucial msata or clean installed Win 7 from scratch?
Thanks

[SSDee]

@rick - I have an ADATA 256GB mSATA SSD installed. I did an Acronis backup of the HDD, then a restore to the SSD. This ensures correct sector alignment of the SSD, as oposed to a "clone".  @harris loves his Crucial, but the Sandforce based ADATA is a great choice too.

Edit: I used Acronis True Image Home 2012 - this is the first version that has full SSD support. Ghost 15 works too.

[harrisb]

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SSDee wrote:

@rick - I have an ADATA 256GB mSATA SSD installed. I did an Acronis backup of the HDD, then a restore to the SSD. This ensures correct sector alignment of the SSD, as opposed to a "clone".  @harris loves his Crucial, but the Sandforce based ADATA is a great choice too.

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One can either itmage or clone (I've used both techniques). Ghost 15 under Windows 7 insures that all of the partitions are aligned properly and easily resized if required when cloning drives. Imaging requires that the target space be equal to or greater than the source. Acronis TIH has had problems according to reports in other forums with partition alignment with some versions. I believe that the problem has been corrected in the most recent one.

Here's a cool video that I found of the A-DATA factory in Taipei:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdm02d_how-to-make-an-ssd-touring-a-data-s_tech 

[harrisb]

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rickshaw wrote:
@harrisb
Did you clone your boot drive to the Crucial msata or clean installed Win 7 from scratch?
Thanks

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I cloned this SSD from the original HDD installation using Ghost 15. All of the required partitions were properly installed and aligned on the mSata SSD. Everything is working properly. It helped that the SSD unallocated space was greater than the size of the partitions that I was cloning. I was also able to resize the C:\ partition on the fly to fill the remaining space without having to go into Windows disk management to extend the copied volume.

[SSDee]

To be perfectly clear, there is no reason to start with a fresh Windows install. You can move your existing system image without a hitch.

[rickshaw]

@SSDee

Thanks for the suggestion, I did consider the ADATA.  It's a toss up between it and the Crucial.  I am leaning towards the latter as I already have a Crucial 512gb M4 (now in another laptop) that I am quite pleased with.

@harrisb

I am considering the 128gb seeing the rate at which prices are dropping, I could upgrade afterwards.  However, if I were cloning, I would have to move all the data so the OS and applications would fit.  I have not used Ghost 15, used previous versions ages ago.  I was thinking of just using the free Macrium Reflect.

Other users have suggested a fresh install of Win 7 for best performance, but the idea of re-installing all the software does not make it too appealing.

Thanks!